Four songs to post here as my tribute to Whitney Houston.
First, her contribution to the growing list of olympic anthems, from 1988, One Moment In Time.
Onto my top 3 choices, and at Number 3, from The Bodyguard, The Queen Of The Night.
At Number 2, a song with a very different feeling about it, compared to most of her other work, from 1993, It's Not Right, But It's Okay.
But my Number 1 choice, in all honesty, was never gonna be a hard one. It is the song she is best known for. Originally the song was a minor hit in the early 1980s for Dolly Parton. It was reorchestrated and given a new vibe for Whitney Houston. From The Bodyguard, her big worldwide number one hit, I Will Always Love You.
Rest In Peace, Whitney.
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Thoughts on the weekend's news
Shocked to hear of the death of Whitney Houston, she was only 48, and seemed to have gotten over the darkest time in her life. I will be posting some of her music here on Viewpoint, as a tribute later.
Other thoughts...
Felt Luis Suarez behaved like a petulant child on Saturday at the Liverpool v Manchester United football match. FA should charge him with bringing the game into disrepute after all the petulance he showed, all the way through the match, despite his goal. Apologies the day after do not make much difference when the world was watching your petulance on display.
David Cameron and Andrew Lansley are digging themselves into a pit at the moment. Neither want to conceed that the NHS reforms they've put forward are the wrong way forward. Torbay had the right idea, putting social care and health care together under one trust. The right ideas were already out there, if they could have been bothered to look. Andrew Lansley should resign.
8 more arrests this weekend in the scandal between journalists and Metropolitan Police officers. 5 of those arrested, were journalists from the Sun. Murdoch, rather too quickly for my liking, came out to announce that he was committed to continuing to publish The Sun. Give it 3 months. I think we may be seeing a different kind of tabloid from Murdoch coming out soon. One that won't be so obvioously biased, presenting itself as straight news with opinion limited to the opinion columns. In fact, the bias will be more subtle, but it'll still be there. Then the Sun will close.
Interesting that 4 current employees from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now 83% owned by the state, have been arrested in a tax fraud investigation. HMRC say that the arrests concern the individuals financial affairs and are not related to their work at the bank, but surely, they cannot handle their own financial affairs without resorting to fraud, does that mean we can trust that they won't employ fraudulent methods in their work for RBS? I don't think so.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, says that Christianity is facing a gradual marginalisation. There are hundreds of religions out there, some very real like Shinto and Buddhism, and some that only really exists in the minds of the believers, such as the Jedi religion. To claim that any one faith should be dominant over all others, is a very dangerous statement to make. Tolerance of all faiths, should be the watchword here.
Overseas, Mitt Romney pulled off a very impressive but unexpected double. He won the Maine Caucuses, which Ron Paul had been expected to win. He also won the straw poll at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, where it had been expected that Rick Santorum would do well. Conservative Republicans may not be fully behind Romney, as they seem to have the opinion that only a Conservative is truly electable, instead of totally unelectable, but if they don't get behind Romney, they don't stand a chance. Why do you think that Democrats have been pushing for Santorum or Gingrich to become the nominee? Neither one has a hope against Obama, it would be an easy victory for Barack Obama. Mitt Romney, with the right VP candidate, probably Ron Paul, would be a much tougher challenge.
Other thoughts...
Felt Luis Suarez behaved like a petulant child on Saturday at the Liverpool v Manchester United football match. FA should charge him with bringing the game into disrepute after all the petulance he showed, all the way through the match, despite his goal. Apologies the day after do not make much difference when the world was watching your petulance on display.
David Cameron and Andrew Lansley are digging themselves into a pit at the moment. Neither want to conceed that the NHS reforms they've put forward are the wrong way forward. Torbay had the right idea, putting social care and health care together under one trust. The right ideas were already out there, if they could have been bothered to look. Andrew Lansley should resign.
8 more arrests this weekend in the scandal between journalists and Metropolitan Police officers. 5 of those arrested, were journalists from the Sun. Murdoch, rather too quickly for my liking, came out to announce that he was committed to continuing to publish The Sun. Give it 3 months. I think we may be seeing a different kind of tabloid from Murdoch coming out soon. One that won't be so obvioously biased, presenting itself as straight news with opinion limited to the opinion columns. In fact, the bias will be more subtle, but it'll still be there. Then the Sun will close.
Interesting that 4 current employees from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now 83% owned by the state, have been arrested in a tax fraud investigation. HMRC say that the arrests concern the individuals financial affairs and are not related to their work at the bank, but surely, they cannot handle their own financial affairs without resorting to fraud, does that mean we can trust that they won't employ fraudulent methods in their work for RBS? I don't think so.
Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, says that Christianity is facing a gradual marginalisation. There are hundreds of religions out there, some very real like Shinto and Buddhism, and some that only really exists in the minds of the believers, such as the Jedi religion. To claim that any one faith should be dominant over all others, is a very dangerous statement to make. Tolerance of all faiths, should be the watchword here.
Overseas, Mitt Romney pulled off a very impressive but unexpected double. He won the Maine Caucuses, which Ron Paul had been expected to win. He also won the straw poll at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, where it had been expected that Rick Santorum would do well. Conservative Republicans may not be fully behind Romney, as they seem to have the opinion that only a Conservative is truly electable, instead of totally unelectable, but if they don't get behind Romney, they don't stand a chance. Why do you think that Democrats have been pushing for Santorum or Gingrich to become the nominee? Neither one has a hope against Obama, it would be an easy victory for Barack Obama. Mitt Romney, with the right VP candidate, probably Ron Paul, would be a much tougher challenge.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Showcase 2? No Showcase here.
When it comes to Television, there are certain inalienable facts that are clear to everyone.
1. It is not a cheap medium to produce. Even the cheapest shows cost upwards of £10,000 per episode to make and some primetime shows are upwards of £100,000 per episode. Thus any programme made will often get repeated airings on as many channels as they reasonably can, even if it's for no other reason than to justify the expense.
2. The medium is driven by ratings. If a show is not doing well, then it tends to get canned or at best, moved into the Friday Night death slots, or out of primetime. Even shows that go out overnight need to perform with the available audience, what little of it there might be.
With that said, let me say this.
As I write this post now, Showcase 2 on Sky Digital channel 203, is showing for about the 60th time since it first aired as a live event on New Year's Day, the 2012 London New Year's Day Parade.
Yes, this was a live event, airing on the Information TV network of channels, on New Year's Day. During the first week of the year, it got heavily repeated. Not a great move but understandable. They wanted this event to be seen by as many people as possible. But since then, it has aired every day, at least once per day, usually on Showcase 2 at 1am. Previously, they had been showing The Landscape Channel.
We are now into February, and they are still showing this New Year's Day Parade, everyday on Showcase 2 at 1am-4am, and it is scheduled for at least the next 7 days.
I have just one thing to say to Information TV, owners of Showcase TV and Showcase 2.
Stop Showing It.
It was a time-sensitive event when you first showed it. Now it's stale and out of date. Get it off your channels. Put something a little less uninteresting on, like The Landscape Channel.
In fact, why don't you guys work with The Landscape Channel to have them broadcast 24/7/365 on Sky and Freesat. I'd prefer 24 hours a day of natural landscapes and instrumental music, over a lot of the crap we currently have, and I'm sure others would feel the same way too.
1. It is not a cheap medium to produce. Even the cheapest shows cost upwards of £10,000 per episode to make and some primetime shows are upwards of £100,000 per episode. Thus any programme made will often get repeated airings on as many channels as they reasonably can, even if it's for no other reason than to justify the expense.
2. The medium is driven by ratings. If a show is not doing well, then it tends to get canned or at best, moved into the Friday Night death slots, or out of primetime. Even shows that go out overnight need to perform with the available audience, what little of it there might be.
With that said, let me say this.
As I write this post now, Showcase 2 on Sky Digital channel 203, is showing for about the 60th time since it first aired as a live event on New Year's Day, the 2012 London New Year's Day Parade.
Yes, this was a live event, airing on the Information TV network of channels, on New Year's Day. During the first week of the year, it got heavily repeated. Not a great move but understandable. They wanted this event to be seen by as many people as possible. But since then, it has aired every day, at least once per day, usually on Showcase 2 at 1am. Previously, they had been showing The Landscape Channel.
We are now into February, and they are still showing this New Year's Day Parade, everyday on Showcase 2 at 1am-4am, and it is scheduled for at least the next 7 days.
I have just one thing to say to Information TV, owners of Showcase TV and Showcase 2.
Stop Showing It.
It was a time-sensitive event when you first showed it. Now it's stale and out of date. Get it off your channels. Put something a little less uninteresting on, like The Landscape Channel.
In fact, why don't you guys work with The Landscape Channel to have them broadcast 24/7/365 on Sky and Freesat. I'd prefer 24 hours a day of natural landscapes and instrumental music, over a lot of the crap we currently have, and I'm sure others would feel the same way too.
Monday, 23 January 2012
Neil Cavuto: John King was right to ask the question.
I don't normally agree with the FOX News hosts a lot, but I do agree with Neil Cavuto on this.
Thursday, 12 January 2012
Skyscrapers does not equal prosperity?
You'd think that a skyscraper being constructed means that economic prospects are looking good. But that might not be the case.
The Guardian, The Independent, and a number of other websites around the world, are all reporting the findings of a study by Barclays Capital.
According to that study, there is a link between the building of the world's tallest skyscrapers and the crashes in the stock and property that followed them.
This is not the first time I have heard of this phenomenon.
In an audio presentation that I have come across from 2003, Dr John Demartini mentions exactly the same idea.
And with China and India, two of the "BRIC" nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China), both building a lot of skyscrapers, this seems to indicate that we in the so called "developed world" have not much more than a couple of years to turn our recessions around and start growing again, before India and China go into recession. Best case scenario; we have 5 years before this happens. Worst case scenario; 2 years.
The Guardian, The Independent, and a number of other websites around the world, are all reporting the findings of a study by Barclays Capital.
According to that study, there is a link between the building of the world's tallest skyscrapers and the crashes in the stock and property that followed them.
This is not the first time I have heard of this phenomenon.
In an audio presentation that I have come across from 2003, Dr John Demartini mentions exactly the same idea.
And with China and India, two of the "BRIC" nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China), both building a lot of skyscrapers, this seems to indicate that we in the so called "developed world" have not much more than a couple of years to turn our recessions around and start growing again, before India and China go into recession. Best case scenario; we have 5 years before this happens. Worst case scenario; 2 years.
Saturday, 7 January 2012
Jean Byrne: RTE's Weather In Leather
I have previously posted about a UK weather presenter Joanna Rice who was nicknamed The Weather In Leather.
Well it seems that Joanna has some competition for that title. RTE has a weather presenter by the name of Jean Byrne, who seems to have taken up Joanna's mantle.
I present the following videos as evidence...
...and as further evidence that she enjoys dressing up, here she is in a silver lame dress...
Hmm, I wonder if she is single...
Well it seems that Joanna has some competition for that title. RTE has a weather presenter by the name of Jean Byrne, who seems to have taken up Joanna's mantle.
I present the following videos as evidence...
...and as further evidence that she enjoys dressing up, here she is in a silver lame dress...
Hmm, I wonder if she is single...
Sources, Stories and Motives: When will websites learn?
I am constantly amazed that in an era when we are supposedly more aware and more discerning about many things, including where we get our news, that a website would take an obviously suspect report and back it up.
News On News basically highlighted Claire Atkinson's reporting at the New York Post on the exodus of talent at CNBC.
Now if that sentence isn't already setting off alarm bells, then it should be.
It's not that the story hasn't got a lot of facts in it. It does. Guy Johnson and Trish Regan have joined Bloomberg, Erin Burnett joined CNN, and Melissa Francis joined Fox Business.
What has got me going is the speculation about CNBC's David Faber being the next one to depart, which is based on absolutely nothing.
If you think about it for a moment, the motive for the story is clear. The New York Post is owned by NewsCorp, the troubled company at the centre of the News Of The World phone hacking scandal.
NewsCorp also owns the Fox Business Channel, who is a direct competitor of... CNBC.
This is the same basic trick that NewsCorp worked so well while they establishing Fox News Channel. Talk down your opposition and slowly build yourselves up.
People are wiser to this trick now. But why News On News didn't spot that obvious conflict of interest, I'm not sure.
News On News basically highlighted Claire Atkinson's reporting at the New York Post on the exodus of talent at CNBC.
Now if that sentence isn't already setting off alarm bells, then it should be.
It's not that the story hasn't got a lot of facts in it. It does. Guy Johnson and Trish Regan have joined Bloomberg, Erin Burnett joined CNN, and Melissa Francis joined Fox Business.
What has got me going is the speculation about CNBC's David Faber being the next one to depart, which is based on absolutely nothing.
If you think about it for a moment, the motive for the story is clear. The New York Post is owned by NewsCorp, the troubled company at the centre of the News Of The World phone hacking scandal.
NewsCorp also owns the Fox Business Channel, who is a direct competitor of... CNBC.
This is the same basic trick that NewsCorp worked so well while they establishing Fox News Channel. Talk down your opposition and slowly build yourselves up.
People are wiser to this trick now. But why News On News didn't spot that obvious conflict of interest, I'm not sure.
D2 Jeans: Administration and Saving stores
This is surprising news to me. I had heard nothing on the news about this chain, so I was surprised when I turned up the story. It seems that for the second time in 2 years, the chain D2 Jeans has entered administration.
The chain came out of the collapse of Fosters Menswear chain back in the 1990s, mixed in with another separate chain of jeans stores. In fact, in Truro, the D2 store replaced the Fosters Menswear store in exactly the same location. It had looked at first like a rebranding, but a closer inspection revealed the store content was quite different.
About a couple of years ago, around the time of the previous entry into administration, that store shut. A new shop opened up a few doors away, after another chain, Wallis, decided to close their stores and moved their Truro operation into the same shop as BHS.
Now thew chain is in administration again, but this time, the Truro shop won't be closing, as that shop, along with Penzance, Newquay, Barnstaple and 16 others, have been bought by Blue Inc.
Blue Inc is another chain of stores that has predominantly mens fashion, with some women's as well. We'll see if this chain does any better.
The chain came out of the collapse of Fosters Menswear chain back in the 1990s, mixed in with another separate chain of jeans stores. In fact, in Truro, the D2 store replaced the Fosters Menswear store in exactly the same location. It had looked at first like a rebranding, but a closer inspection revealed the store content was quite different.
About a couple of years ago, around the time of the previous entry into administration, that store shut. A new shop opened up a few doors away, after another chain, Wallis, decided to close their stores and moved their Truro operation into the same shop as BHS.
Now thew chain is in administration again, but this time, the Truro shop won't be closing, as that shop, along with Penzance, Newquay, Barnstaple and 16 others, have been bought by Blue Inc.
Blue Inc is another chain of stores that has predominantly mens fashion, with some women's as well. We'll see if this chain does any better.
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
Iowa Caucus: The early analysis
So far, 88& of precincts have reported, but I think the situation is clear enough for me to come up with my first analysis of the results.
No matter whether Rick Santorum technically finishes first or whether Mitt Romney does, neither candidate can really call it a victory. They've been statistically tied most of the way.
Ron Paul finishing third, just 4% back of the two front runners is very respectable. This could be the platform that Ron Paul has been looking for for years, and it is definitely his best chance of getting to the White House. It's probably also his last chance, as he is 66 now.
Newt Gingrich being placed 4th may not be what he was hoping for, but I'm not sure he'll think the result bad enough to force him to drop out.
Rick Perry coming in 5th, with about 10%. Normally that might be considered bad enough to force a candidate to drop out. But Rick Perry has fundraised a lot of money. Over $15million in fact. His ability to fundraise might just keep him in this.
For the other two in the race, their future seems surprisingly clear. Michele Bachmann in 6th with just 5%, seems destined to drop out. However, she is not known for being able to read the political tea-leaves very well. She may well try to stay in the race, to try and secure a Vice-Presidential nod from one of the other candidates, maybe trying to position herself as a Sarah Palin-esque type candidate, but better, with more experience.
For John Huntsman, in last place with a mere 1%, it is most definitely over. I imagine he will drop out of the race in the next 24-48 hours.
I imagine the next 24 hours will clear up the picture significantly, so I'll be coming back to this story again.
No matter whether Rick Santorum technically finishes first or whether Mitt Romney does, neither candidate can really call it a victory. They've been statistically tied most of the way.
Ron Paul finishing third, just 4% back of the two front runners is very respectable. This could be the platform that Ron Paul has been looking for for years, and it is definitely his best chance of getting to the White House. It's probably also his last chance, as he is 66 now.
Newt Gingrich being placed 4th may not be what he was hoping for, but I'm not sure he'll think the result bad enough to force him to drop out.
Rick Perry coming in 5th, with about 10%. Normally that might be considered bad enough to force a candidate to drop out. But Rick Perry has fundraised a lot of money. Over $15million in fact. His ability to fundraise might just keep him in this.
For the other two in the race, their future seems surprisingly clear. Michele Bachmann in 6th with just 5%, seems destined to drop out. However, she is not known for being able to read the political tea-leaves very well. She may well try to stay in the race, to try and secure a Vice-Presidential nod from one of the other candidates, maybe trying to position herself as a Sarah Palin-esque type candidate, but better, with more experience.
For John Huntsman, in last place with a mere 1%, it is most definitely over. I imagine he will drop out of the race in the next 24-48 hours.
I imagine the next 24 hours will clear up the picture significantly, so I'll be coming back to this story again.
Sunday, 1 January 2012
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